One of the major areas of global concern in health care is the shortage of nurses. While relevant authorities are doing their level best to reduce its far-reaching impacts, a lot of regions continue to face immense challenges. Because of the lean workforce available, nurses are often the subject of enormous pressure and stress due to the massive workload that faces medical institutions (SCP, 2016). This overworking environment creates a high chance of these trained individuals to make mistakes and increase dissatisfaction in the delivery of patient care. This unfortunate situation also puts a strain on available health policies that function to maintain quality (Haddad & Toney-Butler, 2018). In light of this, the shortage might increase prejudice and force a delay in delivery.

Regarding the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the shortage continues to cause challenges in progress. In matters such as maternity, especially in areas vastly affected by a reduced healthcare workforce, child mortality increases as mothers have no option but to seek midwives and other traditional methods. Because of unavailability of caregiver’s nurses, the available care becomes too expensive thereby reducing the ability of these regions to fight infectious diseases and other illnesses that would otherwise be easy to combat. The lean workforce also affects education since faculties have reduced numbers of teachers (Edmonson, 2017).

A nurse’s value and belief system are imperative in the achievement of the goals and objectives of every policy. These individuals do not only contribute to the implementation of new systems and organizational structures, but they also influence their achievement (Arabi et al., 2014). If their training is extensive and they understand their roles and responsibilities, they can interact with diverse cultures creating harmony necessary in health care. Policies are critical in maintaining quality standards in healthcare. These regulations are mostly applicable when there is a need to prevent futility of treatment, enforce the illegality of unproven treatments, or to protect the masses from prejudice against specific groups.

References

Arabi, A., Rafii, F., Cheraghi, M. A., & Ghiyasvandian, S. (2014). Nurses’ policy influence: A concept analysis. Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research, 19(3), 315.

Edmonson, C., McCarthy, C., Trent-Adams, S., McCain, C., & Marshall, J. (2017). Emerging global health issues: A nurse’s role. Online journal of issues in nursing, 22(1).

Haddad, L. M., & Toney-Butler, T. J. (2018). Nursing shortage.

SCP. (2016). SCP Blog – Nursing Shortage Effect on the Healthcare Industry | SCP Health. Retrieved from https://www.schumacherclinical.com/providers/blog/nursing-shortage-effect-on-the-health-care-industry-current-trends-future-growth